Eruption of Capahue Volcano Imminent, Chile and Argentina Issue Evacuation Orders

Authorities placed Capahue Volcano on red-alert status Monday, prompting the evacuation of people living within a 15.5-mile (25 km) radius around the volcano that straddles the border of Argentina and Chile.

Nearly 3,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area, as reports from both countries indicate an eruption of Capahue is imminent, the BBC reported. Authorities in Argentina first issued a "yellow alert" but later elevated the warning to the highest level.

"This doesn't necessarily mean the volcano will start erupting. But according to the SERNAGEOMIN (National Geological and Mining Service), the volcano is now in a process that could culminate in an eruption, for that reason we've issued a red alert and the evacuation," Chilean Interior Minister Andres Chadwick said, according to Reuters.

The majority of the evacuees live on the Chilean side of the volcano. Approximately 2,240 Chileans have to evacuate, and about 900 people on the Argentinean side of the volcano have been ordered to leave the tourist town of Caviahue-Copahue, Reuters reported. 

A recent seismological report indicated that more than 250 small earthquakes related to magma movement were recorded every hour at Capahue, marking an increase in seismic activity that began earlier this month. SERNAGEOMIN raised the volcano alert status at Capahue from green to yellow to orange to red within the past 30 days, with Monday's red alert coming just days after the volcano was placed on orange alert on May 24, according to Volcano Discovery. 

Erik Klemetti, an assistant professor of Geosciences at Denison University, who frequently writes on volcanoes for Wired Science, said, "the sense from these updates and the change in status is that the SERNAGEOMIN expects an explosive event, similar to what we saw in December 2012 from Copahue," which included an ash and gas plume rising a mile into the air and cancelling hundreds of flights. 

The 9,833-foot (2,997m) stratovolcano is composed of nine volcanic craters along a 1.2 mile (2 km) line along the border of central Argentina and southern Chile. A 1000-foot (300m) wide volcanic crater lake is at the one end of Capahue.  It has erupted at least five times since 1900.